WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed the health care benefits and patient protections that millions of Americans would lose if the Affordable Care Act is repealed and his support for an extension of the middle class tax cuts on Bloomberg Television's "In The Loop." Below are excerpts and a link to the video.

“Millions of people are going to lose protections they now have and insurance companies are going to be put back in charge if this were to become law. But Republicans know this isn’t going to become law – it’s not going to pass the Senate and the President’s not going to sign it. So once again we are spending time… doing things for political purposes, not for policy purposes, and not addressing the creation of jobs which is our number one priority.”

“Again, here we have a question where Republicans are saying ‘repeal’ with no alternative, no replacement, no ‘fill in the blanks’ if you will. Simply ‘repeal’ which appeals to their most conservative constituency.”

“The Supreme Court has said clearly this is constitutional and within the authority of the Congress of the United States, to provide for insurance to make sure people are insured and are covered.… The fact of the matter is, this policy… is extending a protection to people to make sure they have… access to affordable quality health care and that they take personal responsibility so they aren’t passing that cost on to the rest of us.… It’s the essence of good policy.”

“[Extending all Bush tax cuts] will continue to make the deficit worse, the debt situation confronting our country worse - when there is agreement [by the Presdient, Senate, and House of Representatives to extend middle class tax cuts for those making under $250,000]… Let’s take that agreement, pass it, and make sure that middle class Americans, working Americans don’t see a tax increase on January 1..."

"Yes, there’s a disagreement on whether the richest in America should get a tax cut and shouldn’t pay a fair share which will help us bring down our deficit and put our country on a stable fiscal path… Agreement apparently is not in the lexicon of the Republican party at this point in time, or their tea party sponsors who don’t want agreement, and don’t want consensus.”